“I’ve got too much on my plate / I’ve got too much in my brain,” sings Brighton‘s alx frncs on new single ‘i can’t do anything right’. The track is an attempt to process an extremely difficult period via an intimate, gentle sound. “I wrote ‘i can’t do anything right’ after coming out of a deep depression,” frncs describes. “Personal situations were beginning to change and it finally felt like I could process what had happened to me both physically and mentally during the second half of the pandemic.” What results is confessional in tone yet empathetic in nature, serving as both an expression of gratitude to those who helped keep frncs afloat during those intensely difficult months, as well as a comforting hand extended backwards through time as a gesture of self-love and understanding.

you may think i’m lazy
when i fail to wash up dishes daily
hardly got a grasp on life
when death is constant on my mind

Anna Erhard – Botanical Garden

“I read this Google review from a guy who complained about the bad parking situation in the middle of the Atlantic,” explains Swiss indie pop artist Anna Erhard of the inspiration behind her latest single ‘Botanical Garden’. “Eventually this person who is incredibly judgmental and won’t be pleased by anything, not even by the flowers in the Botanical Garden, came to life.” The result is as sardonic as you’d imagine, skewering a specific brand of impossible-to-please (most often) man that seems so prevalent. But it’s full of a strange joy too. Erhard’s deadpan delivery only heightens the song’s humour, and the chorus is as catchy as anything you will hear all year.

they would not allow us
to pick our favorite flowers
kids were singing happy birthday
too close to the highway

Brenna Bruce – Kite and the Line

Taken from her forthcoming debut EP Honest Bloom on Ghost Mountain Records, ‘Kite and The Line’ is the new single from Brenna Bruce. With help from Taylor Heath (piano), Keith Lowe (bass), Trevor Church (drums), Lane King (pedal steel), Chris Coleman (synth) and Abby Gunderson (strings), Bruce brings to life a serene sound shadowed by a certain mournfulness, evoking the way even the most tranquil environment is in some way made poignant by the latent promise of its own end. Such ideas are central to Honest Bloom, where every emotional state is but part of a larger cycle, and beauty can be found in the acceptance of life’s ephemeral nature.

Jon Campbell – Arrow

“Depression dog / lead me to where / I can thrive.” So sings Jon Campbell on ‘Arrow’, the latest single from forthcoming album Still Life With Motion Sickness. Set against a backdrop of sparse piano and ambience, the words sound like a gentle plea as voiced to an empty room. The US-born, Berlin-based artist’s croon murmured as though not to puncture the stillness of the moment. But as the track develops, the vocals grow in desperation or conviction and the sound follows suit. A gradual blossom around Campbell’s increasingly impassioned voice as he airs frustrations, summoning strength from some inner well so as to draw the fortitude to face down one’s demons.

depression, dog!
try seein’ things from my eyes
you wouldn’t dare to try
you wouldn’t have the balls

Still Life With Motion Sickness is out on the 22nd March and you can pre-order it now.

Laurel Bluffs – Block 4

Back in November we introduced  Phoenix, Arizona-based project Laurel Bluffs with single ‘Richmond’. The story of a hungover drive to the titular location where a “folk rock sound and unadorned delivery [lent] an intimacy to the track, where fondness and longing are present without spilling into sugary sentiment.” Latest single ‘Block 4’ follows the same formula, another narrative-based track which blurs the line between fondness and regret in its recollections, told with unerring detail yet never anything other than earnest in tone. Echoes of Andy Hull’s Right Away, Great Captain! are present in the tales of love and violence, and the manner these stories of vengeance and punishment are told with the ache of remove.

‘Block 4’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Nico Paulo – Learning My Ways

This time last year, Portuguese-Canadian songwriter Nico Paulo released her self-titled album on Forward Music Group, a release we described as “marked in its ability to broach weighty topics with a sense of lightness and grace, all tied together by a vocal style at once compassionate and unerring in its focus.” To celebrate the record’s first birthday, Paulo has returned with a brand new video for the single ‘Learning My Ways’, a sweet and impassioned love song that isn’t afraid to explore the less idyllic side to relationships. Featuring tour footage shot and edited by Sarah Kierstead, the film is the ideal commemoration of everything which goes into making an album a success, as well as the singular joy of taking that music to different people every evening.

Nico Paulo is out now via Forward Music Group and you can get it from Bandcamp page.

SUB*T – Unearthly

This June will see the release of Spring Skin, the fittingly titled new EP from Brooklyn alt-rockers SUB*T which sees duo Jade Alcantara and Grace Bennett step firmly into the next stage of their growth. Lead single ‘Unearthly’ hints at what this might sound like, taking the nineties-inspired fuzzy rock energy of debut So Green and adding a darker edge to create something full of brooding swagger. “‘Unearthly’ is a song that’s been in our arsenal for a while,” the band explain. “We chose this as the first single off the EP because the taste of it is a little moodier than the other music we’ve put out […] It feels like a dark fairytale journey, and intentionally leaning into an image like that was new for us when writing this song.” Check out the video directed by Alcantara and Bennett themselves below:

Spring Skin is out in June via If This Then Records and you can pre-order it now.

Tara Kannangara – Apartment

Last week saw the release of Extraordinary People, the new EP from Sri Lankan-Canadian songwriter and musician Tara Kannangara. The Juno Award-nominated artist has long won acclaim for her inventive combinations of genres, drawing on classical training and jazz sensibilities to push synth pop to new heights. Extraordinary People is no less ambitious in its sound, as lead single and opening track ‘Apartment’ attests. A song which embraces the thrill of an early relationship where everything is undecided and the possibilities are endless, packed full of tender details yet blown up to epic proportions in a manner sure to win over fans of early Mitski. But as the track progresses and its full cathartic heft reveals itself, such comparisons are rendered insufficient, failing to suggest the scope of styles which knit into the finished whole.

youbet – Nurture

Walking a tightrope between self-love and self-loathing, ‘Nurture’ is a new single from Way To Be, the upcoming album by Brooklyn’s youbet on Hardly Art. The track’s bittersweet mood is a fitting introduction to a record crafted in the aftermath of a period doubt and disillusionment, a spell broken by a chance encounter at Penn Station with Patti Smith. “She wished me luck,” Nick Llobet explains, “and said, ‘Practice hard, Nick.'” Heeding the advice, Llobet pushed ahead with the new record with a newfound energy, meeting any doubts with curiosity and playfulness instead of succumbing to them. So while tracks like ‘Nurture’ might sound bummed out on the surface, their very existence is a testament to the value of keeping on in spite of things.

Watch the video below animated by Sabrina Nichols:

Way To Be is out on the 10th May via Hardly Art and you can pre-order it now.

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Latest single ‘The Master’ continues this trend, a song of languid warmth punctuated with peaks of searching intensity as Nico Paulo looks to others for ways to cope and thrive in a world so full of turmoil. “‘The Master’ is largely about control and mastery over one’s own feelings,” as she explains. “It’s an inquisitive song more than anything else as it looks to understand how people around you live and feel.” What emerges plays out with a nuanced tone, the vocals possessing both wonder and frustration at the apparent ability of others to hold themselves together amid upheaval, but ultimately serving as a vow to work towards such a state of being. “This song doesn’t tell us which way is better,” as Paulo concludes, “it simply looks to encourage belief and change in ourselves, curiosity and intrigue in what’s to come, and the power of being honest.”

And how come you never get mad?
Put your feelings outside
How come you never get angry?
How come you never get sad?
Oh I believe I can master that
Oh I believe I can

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With second album Still Life coming later this year on Lay Down Recordings, Lisbon‘s April Marmara has shared brand new single, ‘Who Knows Where the Love Goes’. It tells the tale of a love forbidden yet unyielding, persisting even through a lifetime of separation. Marmara’s warm and mysterious folk style elevates the story toward an almost mythical plane, teasing out the unknowable facets of the heart in all of their human nuance. Check out the video produced by Pipa Marinho/Lay Down Recordings and directed by Martim Braz Teixeira:

Still Life will be released later this year on Lay Down Recordings.

Clementine Was Right – Takes Tall Walks

We last wrote about Clementine Was Right, the songwriting project of poet and fiction writer Mike Young, just over a year ago when we previewed the album, Can’t Get Right With the Darkness. It was a record which left “no emotion untapped as they aim to paint the most vivid version of each story possible,” as we described in our piece, letting the shadows take their full darkness if only so that the joy might burn brighter. New single ‘Take Tall Walks’ retains this spirit while moving the style into new territory, what Young calls “a push away from Americana into full-throated Sam Fender/The Killers western emo.” A tone able to broach the weight of the topics at hand, the lyrics dealing with missed opportunities to reach out and reconnect, playing as one last chance to say what needs to be said.

Hall Johnson – OMWO

This spring, Texas-based outfit Hall Johnson are releasing Haymaker, their debut full-length via The Record Machine. Powered by an upbeat energy and seemingly fond vocals, the track plays as a confident and cheerful number, though scratch the surface of the lyrics and there’s a more conflicted mood underneath. Because ultimately the song is a meditation on a failed relationship and the accompanying missteps, packaged so as to work for any listener, no matter where along the spectrum of love and regret they might be.

July Talk – When You Stop

Toronto‘s July Talk have made a name for themselves with an expert balance of ferocity and control, and new album Remember Never Before feels like their most confident, impassioned yet. Single ‘When You Stop’ serves as a distillation of the album’s themes, and thus serves as the ideal introduction to July Talk’s vision across the record. A visceral and cathartic message of persistence delivered from within a culture all to ready to snuff out such ideas. Above all, a willingness to hope in something more. As the liner notes put it “an album of matter over mind. Instincts. Guts. Radical acceptance of who we are; giant hopefulness for who we can be.”

you say you feel
you don’t believe in anything and it doesn’t matter anyway
you say you feel there’s no one listening
been hearing that a lot these days

when you stop you’ll find out what yer running from

Check out the hand-drawn and animated video by band co-leads Leah Fay Goldstein and Peter Dreimanis below:

Remember Never Before is out now via Six Shooter Records and available from Bandcamp.

 Laveda – Clean

With their full-length album A Place Your Grew Up In on the horizon, Laveda are back with a new single, ‘Clean’. Previous track ‘Surprise’ was what we called a “juxtaposition which both embraces the nostalgia of the dream pop/shoegaze style while also refusing to retreat fully from the realties of living and working through pandemics and other challenges,” and the new track is similarly bittersweet. An examination of growing up that captures both the fondness and loss inherent in the process. “I think for the first time I truly realised that growing up was an inevitable fate,” Ali Genevich explains. “It’s such a strange thing, knowing you’re only to grow further and further from innocence as life goes on. I never wanted to think about getting older as a kid, I wanted to stay eight years old forever. I think there’s a part of that feeling that will always stay with me.”

I’m getting older
You say it’s fine though
Am I playing my cards right
Me and the devil

Check out the video directed by David Martucello, Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks below:

A Place You Grew Up In releases on 14th April on PaperCup Music. You can preorder it now via the Laveda Bandcamp page.

Nico Paulo – Time

Nico Paulo is a Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter who’s based in St John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. In April she will release her self-titled debut LP via Forward Music Group, a record that promises to follow the nuanced, tender lineage of songwriters such as Gal Costa, Feist and Victoria Legrand. Latest single ‘Time’ is the perfect introduction, a rich folk pop song full of smooth melodies and almost tropical rhythms, like a long-lost seventies masterpiece that you dig out from a crate in a garage sale. Lyrically the track is sparse on detail but strong on imagery, the narrator urging a friend to let go of inhibitions. “’Time’ is a song about friendship, admiration and change,” Nico Paulo explains. “It’s a dialogue between two characters that investigates the discrepancies between them — one is more rigid and one is more free.” Check out the video by LA creative studio Sing Sing below:

Nico Paulo releases on 7^th April and you can pre-order it on a variety of formats via Bandcamp.

Orchid Mantis x surfgoth – time and space

We’ve long appreciated the work of Orchid Mantis, with most recent release How Long Will It Take on Spirit Goth Records exploring time in all of its dimensions, from reflection to predestination. But never one to rest on their laurels, the project has teamed up with Wilmington’s surfgoth for brand new single, ‘time and space’. Another suitably glimmering slice of lo-fi pop which tempts the listener in with its wistful textures and holds them there with enveloping layers of vocals.

roman around – Comes With Age

Back in June we introduced roman around with single ‘Rhythm‘ on Trailing Twelve Records. The Fresno-based drummer, multi-instrumentalist and teacher “draws on personal experiences as a non-binary, pansexual person, as well as spiritual themes from their upbringing within Native American and Mexican communities,” as we explained, using a palette across post-punk, pop and R&B styles to do so. roman around has now released their debut full-length Tell Me All About You, and single ‘Comes With Age’ offers a glimpse at the hazy side of their sound. A gauzy space through which confessional vocals drift, though the vocals flash with deceptively sharp edges too.

Species Traitor – Acheulean Handaxe

“I used to work as a gardener, and now I’m an archaeologist,” says Joey LeBrun of Species Traitor. “That seems relevant.” The Vancouver band’s self-titled album explores the tension of climate change from this perspective, balancing the dread of an impending doom with the temptation to submit altogether, all presented with an off-the-wall energy. The result achieves the Berman paradox, sounding at once overwhelmed in the immediacy of the present and commenting from a wry remove. A gardener and archaeologist both. Inspired by the work of Anne Carson, single ‘Acheulean Handaxe’ is a good place to start—the tale of a monster who wants more than everything to be nice, only for the world to push him toward a violent end.

Throw your glass in the fire and we’ll make a whole scene
Where everything around you is pouring red to the sea

Wednesday – Chosen to Deserve

“Though Twin Plagues is a record of memories, there’s nothing polished about the experiences being relayed, no rose-tinted gloss applied through repeated telling. There’s no nostalgia either. No intention to preserve or wish to return. Rather, Wednesday portray the past as something still present. The rugged surface across which the present is overlain.” That’s how we described the previous record by Wednesday, released via Orindal Records. Having now signed with Dead Oceans, the Asheville outfit are set to return with new full-length Rat Saw God, and latest single ‘Chosen to Deserve’ suggests they are pushing this style to new heights. There’s pool hopping, Benadryl abuse, Sunday school, a loneliness everywhere and in everything. But like those of bandmate MJ Lenderman, Karly Hartzman’s lyrics offer no distinction between the good and the bad, the fascinating and the mundane, but rather recognise everything as another dimension of life in all its peculiar beauty.

Rat Saw God will be released via Dead Oceans on 7th April and you can pre-order it now.

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